Gaming - Mortal Gods first game

Oywn and I finally played out first game of Mortal Gods last weekend. We have both gotten our faction sets, him Sparta and I Athens. We played with the hoplites I've painted up but with the faction cards. We also each had three slingers that I painted for my EIR Roman army.

The boy with his Spartan Lochos moving forwards.

Painting - Hoplite Command for Mortal Gods

These are the final four models, for now, to allow Owyn and I to play Mortal gods.

Painting - Mortal Gods Hoplites - The red ones

This is the second unit of hoplites I painted up for Mortal Gods. This is the red unit; red tunics and red and white crests, which will be Owyn's Spartans until I can get his Victrix Spartans painted up.

Twelve hoplites, ready to fight for Sparta.

Painting - Mortal Gods Mercenary Hoplites - The white ones

This batch is 12 Warlord Games Hoplites (formerly Immortal miniatures I think), that I painted up for Owyn and I to play Mortal Gods from Footsore Miniatures. Owyn is currently studying ancient Greece and is fascinated by the Spartans and the mythology. We come from a family of historians, my parents are both published historians and history professors. The history bug has lain dormant in my boys up until this year. Rhys has become fascinated by WWII and now Owyn's new-found interest.

The astute among you may notice that there are 14 models below. The two command models were done separately and will be in another post.

Painting - Warrior and Wizard

This is a quick post with two models completed. They are not for any particular project but they were sitting around and looked like they would be quick to bang out. Both are Reaper Bones. I've painted another one of the sword guy before so now there are two.

Gaming - A Song of Ice and Fire

We've recently been playing quite a few games of Cool Mini or Not's A Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game. The rules are easy to understand and they make for a very fast game. There's not a ton of tactical depth, to my eyes, but Rhys gets the rules and likes the game, so that's what really matters.

The Traveller reading his cards.

Ragnar - Paladin of Rosmerta

This model is a Reaper Bones model that I bought in the store. He's a solid model with better detail than some of the others I have. The faces, in particular, often suffer in the bones material but this one is fine.

Ragnar, preparing to fight evil, or good, what ever, something.

Painting Progress - Bits and bobs and tokens

This latest batch of painted stuff is bits and pieces for a variety of purposes from a variety of manufacturers. They will mostly be used as treasure items in games like Rangers of Shadow Deep (RoSD) or for scatter and looks in D&D.

The Games that Define Us - Re-post

This is an old post of mine, from 2012, that I just re-read. It made me think, again, about the influences in my games as well as how Rhys has been influenced as he grows up with gaming.

The idea is to talk about ten games that define you as a gamer.  Some interesting things have come out of it.  More North American gamers seem to have gotten in through RPGs, whereas the UK gamers seem to have come into it through GW.

In my case, I definitely follow the trend, coming to GW late in my gaming life.  There are some on my list that I have not seen anywhere else.  Others seem to be on every list.

Painting Progress

This group of models is the last of 2019. They are the Abyssal Dwarf Slave Orcs from Mantic that I painted for my son's birthday. I still need to do the slave master and his ugly dog to finish the unit off, but his was eighteen orcs completed. The keen eyed among you will notice that there are not 18 orcs on the base. I saved off four to make the next unit that much faster.

14 Orcs, ready for the battlefield

Welcome to 2020

It's been awhile. I've spent the last two years finishing the basement. I've done a lot of the work myself and we paid as we went, so it took a long time. The drawback to this is that all of my miniatures have been in storage for the last two years. I've done a lot of gaming but it has all been board or RPGs. Not bad, but not the stuff for this blog.

The basement after framing and wiring are complete.

Memorial Day - 2019

8th Challenge - Entry 4 - BFG - Hundred Years War Bombard and crew (Zvezda and BTD)

This is a 20mm Bombard from Zvezda. I left off the small crew and added 28mm crew from some Hundred Years War artillery from Black Tree Design.

8th Challenge, Entry 3 - Dark Elf Dark Riders from GW

This entry is six Dark Elf dark riders from GW. These are the older metals, from just before the current plastics. I think I have another twelve of these, perhaps more.

8th Challenge, Entry 2 - Flight bonus round. Air Cavalry

This unit is six flying carpet riders. These are 28mm models from Black Tree Design. I have many historical armies, but I've always loved Fantasy as well. This year I'm adding fantasy elements to several of my historical armies. Ironically in this case, this is the first unit done for my arabs.

Top view to see the carpets.

2017 Year in Review

2017 is in the books. It was great for gaming, but not for miniature games. It was rubbish for painting, mainly because I played almost no miniature games. Work was rewarding but also completely overwhelming for the last half of the year. 

8th Challenge - Entry 1 - Dark Elf Reaper Bolt Thrower (GW)

This post is much later than my usual first entry. These models were supposed to be done day two of the Challenge. I hadn't used the Jade Green in awhile and squeezed a bit too hard to get it out, and got way too much. Since I hate to waste paint I then had to grab a couple more units of dark elves and use it on them. That means I have two more units nearing completion, but also that these took longer than planned.

A Reaper bolt thrower from GW.

VIII annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

The Snow Lord, Curt Campbell, has risen in the North and declared the VIII (or Ate-th) annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I will again be participating, though at a lower level than in years past. This is due to both increased work commitments and to the prospect of working on finishing the basement during the same time period.

This year allows terrain for the first time. It is also themed around monsters and such. I believe I have what I need on hand, but some quick planning and ordering may be in order.

Memorial Day II - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

"In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire" 

[An address delivered for Memorial Day, May 30, 1884, at Keene, NH, before John Sedgwick Post No. 4, Grand Army of the Republic.]

Not long ago I heard a young man ask why people still kept up Memorial Day, and it set me thinking of the answer. Not the answer that you and I should give to each other-not the expression of those feelings that, so long as you live, will make this day sacred to memories of love and grief and heroic youth--but an answer which should command the assent of those who do not share our memories, and in which we of the North and our brethren of the South could join in perfect accord.
So far as this last is concerned, to be sure, there is no trouble. The soldiers who were doing their best to kill one another felt less of personal hostility, I am very certain, than some who were not imperilled by their mutual endeavors. I have heard more than one of those who had been gallant and distinguished officers on the Confederate side say that they had had no such feeling. I know that I and those whom I knew best had not. We believed that it was most desirable that the North should win; we believed in the principle that the Union is indissoluable; we, or many of us at least, also believed that the conflict was inevitable, and that slavery had lasted long enough. But we equally believed that those who stood against us held just as sacred conviction that were the opposite of ours, and we respected them as every men with a heart must respect those who give all for their belief. The experience of battle soon taught its lesson even to those who came into the field more bitterly disposed. You could not stand up day after day in those indecisive contests where overwhelming victory was impossible because neither side would run as they ought when beaten, without getting at least something of the same brotherhood for the enemy that the north pole of a magnet has for the south--each working in an opposite sense to the other, but each unable to get along without the other. As it was then , it is now. The soldiers of the war need no explanations; they can join in commemorating a soldier's death with feelings not different in kind, whether he fell toward them or by their side.

Memorial Day